The [Grönholm] Method
Some belated blogging on the last few days of TIFF.

The Method [El Método] (Marcelo Piñeyro, Spain/Argentina/Italy). Before I saw this film I had read at the FilmNerd3 blog that the word “Grönholm” had been deleted from the title, but still for some reason I assumed the movie was Scandinavian so I was expecting a dark Norwegian comedy like Junk Mail or Kitchen Stories. In fact the film is set in Spain, and directed by an Argentinian. I wouldn’t describe this as a dark comedy, although it is very funny. It does have some serious themes, however, relating to the modern corporation. The question this film asks is, how far would you go to get a good job (in this case an executive position at Dekia Inc.) and, conversely, how far should a corporation ask you to go to demonstrate your loyalty? The film begins like a satire on The Apprentice, with nods to other reality-genre TV shows like The Mole and of course Survivor. The seven final candidates for the post arrive to be interviewed, and are told they will be assessed by the “Grönholm Method”, a series of tasks presented to the group. The tasks quickly become psychologically intense, as the candidates defend themselves by attacking each other. After a particularly brutal personal attack, one of the candidates, Carlos, apologizes to his target, saying it was just part of the role he was playing for the task. The actor playing Carlos, who attended for a Q&A, was Eduardo Noriega, who starred in Open Your Eyes (also a brilliant movie) and did a much better job than Tom Cruise in the remake, Vanilla Sky. The Method was one of the highlights of TIFF, both funny and thought-provoking. Watch out for the Prisoner’s Dilemma at the end of the film. You can find a lot of blogging about this film via a Technorati search but most of it is in Spanish. I’m still trying to figure out this blog post; what are Joan Miró’s relatives accusing the author of? 9

The Fardelsbear.com review raises a question about the ending; I'll give my explanation but it’s a major spoiler so don’t read any further unless you’ve seen the film.

When Ricardo and Carlos are in the washroom toward the end, Ricardo says that he was not the mole, but just a regular candidate and had improvised being one of the selectors because he felt he wasn’t doing well enough. But after that, it becomes apparent that he is not a candidate. The Fardelsbear reviewer pegged this as an inconsistency, and I understand his confusion but ultimately it is clear that Ricardo was just joking when he said that. He went on to say that he and the receptionist (Montse, played by Natalia Verbeke) were actors, hired by Dekia; sometimes Ricardo played the receptionist and Montse played the mole. I think the film deliberately left it ambiguous whether that was the truth. Maybe Ricardo is just an actor and there really was a team of psychologists watching everything and making all the decisions; or maybe Ricardo and Montse were actually the executives in charge of making the final decision, and there was no “team of psychologists” watching everything on video.